


This empty world of nothingness

by Eemsterpower



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Surviving, Virus, apocalypse-ish, empty world, i'm shit at tags, sleeping death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 20:16:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6871921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eemsterpower/pseuds/Eemsterpower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis wakes up one morning and there's like, no one there anymore. His whole town is completely empty, wiped off all the people that lived in it. His family, his friends, all gone. Except for Harry.<br/>Together they set out to find other survivors of whatever it is that might have happened, only to find that things are even more complicated than they seem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This empty world of nothingness

Louis blinked his bleary eyes a few times to remove the sleep from them and stretched his arms above his head with a satisfying crack. He was glad to feel that his muscles weren't as sore as they had been the last few days and that his nose wasn't as runny as it had been the days before.

He honestly had felt better yesterday evening already and his mum had told him that he'd be allowed to school tomorrow if he was fine today. He didn't necessarily like school - honestly, senior year sucked, but after lying in bed for one and a half weeks, he wanted to see his friends and play footie again.

Absent mindedly, he noticed that it was really quiet outside and wondered for a second whether he'd slept in and missed all of the commuter traffic, but the light streaming in and his clock on his nightstand confirmed his feeling that it was still pretty early in the morning, 7:13 to be exact. Strange.

He went to put on his joggers, but then remembered that he'd worn them all week and grimaced at the smell of sweat and sick that came wafting off them. He chucked the grey fabric into the laundry bin in the corner of his room, which he barely ever used, and pulled a fresh pair of jeans out of his closet along with a big, green Adidas sweater.

As he descended the stairs, he once again noticed the quietude around him, as if no one was there. Where was everyone anyway? Usually around this time, Phoebs and Daisy would be running around the house for some reason, Lottie would be in the shower and god forbid him, Fizzy would be singing along to this awful boyband she listened to everyday. Now, however, there was none of that around him. It was as if a blanket had settled heavy and thick over the house and was absorbing all the sounds.

"Mum?" He asked quietly, affected by the silence around him. He rounded the corner into the kitchen, but she wasn't there. The whole kitchen seemed as if it hadn't been used today yet, his empty teacup by the sink from yesterday evening, along with the tiny bowl Lottie'd had crisps in. It was as nothing had touched it yet.

"Mum?" He called again, louder this time. No answer.

Maybe he'd been mistaken and it was Saturday, he thought, even though he knew damn well that it was Wednesday, because tomorrow was footie practice and he had begged to his mum to let him go. Maybe they were still sleeping.

He hurried into the hallway and up the stairs, pulling open the first door hid came across. It was Phoebe and Daisy's, but neither of the girls were there. Their beds looked like they hadn't been slept in and Louis' heart was thudding loudly in his throat. Maybe this was all a joke, a prank, and this wasn't actually happening. His mind was just desperately trying to find an answer to this situation. Maybe they'd gone out.

With shaking hands, he reached for his phone, typing in his mother's number and holding the mobile device to his ear. Despite the long beep he'd been expecting, a metallic voice echoed in his ear.

_"The number that you have_ _tried_ _to_ _reach_ _does not exist. Please make sure you have dialed_ _the_ _right digits and try again."_

His hands were shaking so bad now, he nearly dropped the phone. Does not exist? What the hell was happening? He pressed Fizzy's contact and called.

_"The number that you have tried to reach does not ex-"_

No. _Nononononononono._ This wasn't happening. He dialed Stan, and after that Hannah, only to get the same metallic voice in his ears.

Maybe this was just a dream. A little voice spoke to him from the depth of his mind. This was so bizarre, it had to be a dream right? He tried pinching himself, but no avail. Maybe he needed something bigger. Like slamming his head against the door. He went for it, not caring how idiotic it looked, because there was no goddamn person to watch him.

His forehead collided to the wood and he bounced back, a dull, throbbing pain above his left eye. Not a dream then. Slightly dizzy, he slid to the floor, back against the door, and cried.

***

Once he'd gathered himself back together at least a little bit, he stood up. Grabbing his keys from the table in the hallway, he walked out and slowly closed the door behind him. His stomach gave a weak grumble in protest, but he ignored it.

The sight on front of his was terrifying, the silence extending to not only his house, but also the street. There were no cars, no cyclers, no joggers, no pedestrians, no nothing. It was completely, utterly silent, nothing moving or making sounds.

His footsteps sounded so loud on the pavement, hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans. Suddenly, there was a light fluttering of wings and Louis jumped up at the noise. It was a little swallow, picking at something between the tiles and he mentally cursed himself for being scared by such a tiny thing.   
On the other hand, his brain noticed, there were animals here. Maybe it was just human kind that was gone, not every living being. If he could just know what on here, he would feel a lot better.

With the sounds his feet were making on the pavement, echoing off the buildings, he felt like, like he was in one of those cliché cowboy movies, where the hero walks into this deserted town.

There was no one and nothing around him, every window of every house he looked through displaying the same empty living room or kitchen. He was nearing the main shopping area now, grocery stores lining up the sides of the road. As if on cue, his tummy growled again, louder this time and he curiously looked at the shop again. It seemed as empty and deserted as everything else.

He walked to the door and pushed it, the hinges giving away under his touch, the little bell above the door signaling his presence, even as there was no one to signal it to.

The power was still on, he noticed as he walked further into the shop, the dim white light from the drink coolers lighting the places the seven in the morning sunlight could not reach.

He turned to the bread department and reached for a muffin that was in a basket on the counter. It oddly felt like stealing, even as there was no one to steal from. His stomach rumbled again and he just grabbed it. It was for the greater good anyway. Nothing happened as he bit into it, no alarmbells ringing, no cops, nothing and so he just ate it as he assessed the situation.

As far as he knew, he was on his own. Doncaster seemed completely empty and he hoped that it was just Doncaster and not the whole world or he would be royally fucked. He needed to get out of this ghost town and see if it was the same everywhere else but he did not know how to drive a car which meant he would have to walk, which would take all day.

He scanned the shop, seeing a set of backpacks for sale in the corner and grabbed one. Recalling the weather forecast for today, he grabbed several bottles of drinks, it was going to be hot apparently, and some boxes of sandwiches, salads and a whole bunch of candy. He had to live of off something, didn't he?

He sighed, preparing himself for a whole day of walking. He was happy to be wearing his sneakers right now and not the flipflops he'd gotten comfortable with wearing in the morning and cursed himself for not wearing his joggers. His jeans would have to do.

He sighed again and went outside, turning to the left, to the road out of town. He walked in the middle of it, just for the sake of walking in the middle of the road - it wasn't like there would be any cars - and mentally praised himself. He was handling this really fucked up situation pretty goddamn well.

There was a noise and some splinters of asphalt spat up right in front of him. It took another second and two more bullets that hit the ground around him to realise what was happening and _shit_ , was his life real right now? Was someone actually fucking shooting at him? He turned around quickly and started to run as fast as he could, the sound of bullets hitting the ground following him hot on the heels.

He had no idea how long he'd been running, at least a few minutes, and he hadn't been hit yet, when something actually moved in his left eyes corner vision and there was a sudden shout of; "Lewis!"

Despite the incorrect pronunciation of his name, Louis turned his head to find a figure standing in the doorway on his left, desperately waving at him to come in. Another bullet flew past his head and he immediately turned left, racing towards the house.

The figure held the door open for him as his sprinted in and slammed it shut as soon as he had set foot over the entrance. A few bullets hit the wood and then there was nothing.

"Shiiit." Louis panted, leaning forward with his hands placed on his knees. "That is some crazy shit going on out there."

He looked up at his saviour, who was still pressed up with his back against the wall. The guy seemed familiar and even though he didn't know him by name, Louis was pretty sure this guy was in his senior year too and they had had Music together at some point. He was tall, a little lanky maybe, with thick chocolaty curls framing his face. His expression mirrored Louis' exactly, a pale combination of horror and fright, mixed with the grim will of survival. "Thank you."

"It's alright." The guy shook his head. "They shot at me too this morning. You go to my school, right? Lewis?"

Louis nodded. "Yeah, it's Lou-ee, by the way. The French way, not that it really matters. Thank you for saving me anyway." He extended his hand.

"Harry." The other boy grasped it before going to sit down at the kitchen table that, through his running haze, Louis hadn't even noticed was there. "You have any clue what's going on here?"

"No," Louis sank down on a chair as well, dropping the backpack on the table. "I just woke up this morning and there was just nobody there anymore. I actually thought I was all alone until you saved me."

"Same here, I woke up early and got shot at when I'd been on the streets for some time, looking for survivors of whatever happened here. I fled inside, searching this house until I heard shots again." He eyed the black backpack Louis had dropped onto the table. "What's in there?"

Louis shrugged studying the other boy's face rather than the bag. Harry was attractive, he had to give him that. It was this mild kind of handsomeness in his features that didn't make him stand out but if you looked closely, he was more attractive than those overly handsome guys with useless gym bulk. He was the kind of handsome that made you feel reassured he wasn't way out of your league, and that he would burn his back like an arsehole when a difficult situation arose. And Louis would know, as a proud gay man himself.

Reminding himself that Harry had asked him a question, he pulled his mind together. "Nothing really. Figured I was going to walk to a neighbour town to see if it were the same everywhere like it is here, so I stuffed some food and drinks from the grocery store in there to take with me."

Harry hovered his hand over the brand new black material. "May I?" His expression matched a child on Christmas morning.

"Yeah, sure." Louis waved his hand with the slight flamboyant manner he did everything with. He couldn't help it, it just came natural. "Take whatever you want. We can always get new." He frowned. "If we don't get shot at, of course."

Harry was quick with opening the zipper, emptying the bag on the table and picking a bottle of Mountain Dew. He twisted the cap with a simple wrist motion and gulped down the liquid like he hadn't had anything in days. Louis watched him with arched eyebrow.

Harry looked up after downing half the bottle and wriggled the content a little sheepishly. "What? They haven't got anything to drink in this place."

***

"Really Harry?" Louis fingered the material of the bulletproof vests. "This is why you went out last night? Seriously?"

After spending three days on their own, without finding anyone else, they'd figured out a few things. For one, the shooting on the streets only happened by day and if they were out for longer than fifteen minutes. Second, any door and any lock was open and nothing decayed. For some reason, there seemed to be an endless supply of everything in the shops, no matter how much they took.

The situation was strange in every way. It seemed like, like the whole world had just died out, except for them. They had walked to a neighbour farm the second night, but the friendly family that used to live there was nowhere in sight. The animals were walking freely around the house and area. Pets seemed to have disappeared too around town. No cats, no dogs, no hamsters, no goldfish, nothing. Just farm and wild animals.

And now Harry had gone out and grabbed two bulletproof vest from the nearby police station for some strange reason. He looked at the taller boy in confusion. "Why?"

Harry had this grin on again, the one that made him look like a five year old in a candy store, and honestly, Louis couldn't help but find it completely endearing. The idea was quite concerning actually because if they truly were the last people on earth and they actually got together and the proceeded to have a spectacular falling out like Louis had with all his boyfriends, then things could actually get seriously lonely. Besides, he wasn't even sure whether Harry was even into boys at all.

Realising he had zoned out on Harry's answer, he listened to the last part of it. "-and I just thought it would be nice to get some protection if we get shot at."

Louis rose his eyebrows, getting the gist of what Harry had been saying. "That's actually very clever, Haz."

Harry frowned. "Haz? Where did that come from?"

"I just-" Louis blushed. "It slipped, I just made it up. Why, do you not like it?"

Harry shrugged. "It's fine, it's just..." He choked off slightly. "My sister used to call me that." He bit his lip and his eyes started to water. Louis, sitting on the couch, reached out and grabbed Harry's hand, pulling him towards him. Harry stumbled before dropping on the couch, half next to him, half on top of his lap.

"It'll be alright Harry." He whispered and a drop of wetness slid over Harry's cheek. And once one tear had broken out, more started to fall, until eventually, he was sobbing into Louis' shoulder. Louis knew that he had had his freak out earlier, in his bedroom, but Harry probably hadn't yet and it was all coming out now.

He just pulled Harry closer and held him tight whole the other boy cried it all out. After a while, the tears stopped coming and Harry pulled back from where he'd hidden his face in Louis' shirt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break down like that."

"It's alright," Louis told him softly. "I have had my own freak out already."

"You did?"

Harry's eyes were red roomed from crying but curious. Louis understood that he needed a distraction from his own pain right now and so he nodded. "Yes, in my bedroom, when I realised what was going on. I dialed mum and my friend and when I got nothing, I broke down against the wall and cried my brain out."

Harry laughed softly at Louis' own schadenfreude and it broke the tension. Louis smiled back. If Harry felt better then everything would be alright.

***

It was a week in when the first panic situation happened. They had eaten dinner together and had begun to watch a movie but Louis had fallen asleep.

When he woke up, it was dark and he was lying on a bed instead of a couch. Harry must have carried him there, his sleep riddled mind provided. The digital clock on the wall was lighting up faint red when he looked at it.

03:04 AM

Through the darkness of the room, he could see Harry's bed opposite to his, the sheets pushed off the bottom. It was empty.

"Haz?" He called softly, the situation reminding him too much of when he'd woken up a week ago and had found no one in his house.

He stumbled out of the bed. There was no light burning in the hallway nor in the living room. The kitchen was empty, the only sound being the ticking of the analogue clock on the wall.

"Haz?" Maybe Harry had fallen asleep on the couch? But no, there was no one there. He stumbled back towards what they had decided to be their bedroom and grabbed his phone of the charger from the nightstand.

The bright light blinded his eyes momentarily but he blinked through it hastily. Scrolling down his contacts, he went to the H and pressed the second contact there. Hazza.

His heart was beating like crazy as it rung once, twice.

_"The number that-"_ He stopped the call instantly, gasping for air. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening, this _couldn't be happening._

He crumbled in the corner, arms crossed in front of his chest, hands grabbing at his own shoulders. His chest was hurting, his lungs wheezing and _he just_ _couldn't_ _breathe._

He didn't know how long he sat there, maybe even hours, but all that was on his mind was that Harry was gone too and what had he done to deserve this? What had he done that got him to be the only person left on earth?

He was so lost that he missed the slight creaking of the front door's hinges and footsteps on the floor. A shadow loomed over him, large hands cupping his cheeks and a soft voice saying; "Lou?"

He looked up, his whole body convulsing of how bad he was shaking, eyes unfocused as he stared at the vague figure in front of him. The voice came through his haze again, gentle and calm. "Louis, can you hear me?"

He knew that voice, he knew who this was, this was- "Harry," He croaked, tears streaming down his cheeks now. "Harry, _harryharryharryharryharry."_ He reached out desperately, clinging to the taller boy like a koala. "Harry, you're here, I thought you- I called you and- I-"

"Ssssh." Harry cooed, placing one hand under his bum and one on his back, lifting him up and carrying him to the couch. Once they were seated, Louis on Harry's lap, he threaded a hand through the smaller boy's hair and started to rock him back and forth. "Shh, calm down Lou, breathe." Louis gasped out in an attempt to get some air into his deprived lungs. "Good. Now, can you tell me what happened, love? Tell me what got you so upset?"

Louis gasped again, bright blue eyes trying to blink to tears away. "I, I just-" A hiccup interrupted his sentence. "I woke up, and, and you weren't there and I couldn't find you and then I tried to call you but it said your number didn't exist and then I panicked because I thought you were gone too and-" He coughed, lungs desperately sucking in air. He went to speak again but Harry placed a gentle hand over his mouth.

"I think I get it Lou, save your breath okay?" Louis nodded and Harry removed the hand. "I woke up; around two forty five and couldn't sleep anymore and we were out of tea so I went to get some. My phone died on me when I was out, that's all. I didn't mean to scare you."

By now, Louis was slowly coming back to reality, his eyes blinking against the harsh light of the lamp next to the couch. Seeing Louis breathing normally again, Harry slowly lifted him off his lap and onto the couch next to him and rose, walking to the kitchen. "I'm going to make us a cuppa, alright?" Louis nodded. "Good, now, what were you saying about my number not existing?"

Louis sighed softly. "I was panicking when I couldn't find you, and so I tried to call you, but I just got that same metallic voice again, saying that 'The number that you tried to call' stuff. I cut it off before it could finish but it was the same thing I got when I tried to call my family.

Harry turned with two mugs in his hands. "Try again, maybe you heard it wrong because you were already panicked." Louis wanted to argue with it, he really wanted to but he knew it was the truth. When he got panicked, he usually lost touch with reality, hence what just happened.

He retrieved his phone from where he left it on the floor and called again, putting it on speaker. _"The number that you have dialed is currently out of use. Please leave a message after the beep."_ A harsh noise, sounding more like a buzzer than a beep, followed the mechanic voice.

He looked back up at Harry, who was smiling softly at him. "See, nothing to worry about."

Louis smiled back spitefully. "Okay, I admit, I cut it off as soon as I heard that voice. I didn't realise that this was an option too." Harry smiled back at him and placed the mug in front of him.

"We'll be alright Lou, we'll survive."

***

"Harry! Look what I've found!" Louis came running into the house with a set of keys and a large book in his hands. "It's a manual on how to drive a car! And keys to a Jaguar Cabriolet!"

Harry chuckled at his excitement. "And let me guess, you want to learn how to drive a car."

Louis rolled his eyes. "Well, obviously. And once I can drive, we can go to other places and see whether there are other survivors, like us."

"Alright." Harry nodded.

"Yeah?"

The simple enthusiasm and joy that was contained in that one word was enough to make Harry laugh softly. "Yeah, but I'm not getting in there until I am one hundred percent sure that you won't make us crash." Louis flipped him off with a smile.

It was three days later, when Harry was sitting outside, enjoying the sun, that a sleek red car with open roof rolled into the street, honking loudly. He could see Louis wild hair fleeing in the wind and the loud Yorkshire accent called; "I did it, Haz!"

Eyes wide in disbelief, Harry watched as Louis smoothly parked the car in the spot in front of the house and jumped out of the vehicle. "I did it!"

"That's amazing Lou," Harry replied. "but, how? It's only been three days."

Louis shrugged, filling a cup with the lemonade Harry had made and put on a table outside. "It's easy. The difficult parts are all of the rules, but because there aren't any other people I have to think about while driving. Without all of that, it just comes down to the brakes and the sorting of gears. And that's easy."

Harry rose his eyebrows. "Alright, if you say so."

Louis smiled wide. "I say so."

***

"I'm telling you, Nickelback shouldn't be as under appreciated as it is."

"Oh, please," Harry snorted. "There is a reason everyone hates them and you know it."

It was Louis' turn to snort now, eyes focused on the road that was visible in their head lights. "A reason? Oh, then please enlighten me, o wise Lord, what reason is there to hate on Nickelback?"

Harry's brow furrowed. "Eh,"

"See," Louis chuckled. "That's what I mean, there is no reason." He shrugged. "I don't blame you though, you just have a bad taste of music. If it were up to you, we would be listening to some stupid indie band the whole time."

"Excuse you!" Harry growled. "Pearl Jam is not some sort of indie band! They are the founders of Chicago Rock. _Rock_ _._ Pearl Jam is more hardcore than your stupid Nickelback."

Several hours later, they'd been through both Harry and Louis' play lists and they were both a bit disgruntled. Eventually it was Louis who broke first. "Alright, I'll admit that Pearl Jam is not a stupid indie band." Honestly, he kinda liked them really, but he would never tell Harry that.

Harry smiled wide. "Fine, there's no reason to hate on Nickelback either."

"Good, now we've overcome our dif-" Louis started but Harry cut him off with a hand on his arm.

"What's that?" With his eyes, Louis followed the direction of his pointed finger until his eyes were fixed on a set of light that very much looked like the headlights of a car. And it was moving. Once it came closer by and they could see that it actually was a driving car, Harry's hand tightened om his arm. "Pull over, pull over."

Louis pulled over and so did the other car once it got close enough. A bit weary, he got out of the car, going to stand in front of Harry. You couldn't blame him, something had wiped out nearly all the other people and they didn't know what that something was. It could be some kind of aliens or something.

The door of the other car opened with the same precaution, a dark clothed figure stepping out. He had black hair, darker skin, Arabic background, but aside all of that, he was definitely, definitely human. And it seemed like he shared his excitement with Louis because he bent down and stuck his head into the vehicle quickly. "Liam, Niall! They're actually people, come out here!"

Slowly, the passenger door and the one behind it by the back seat opened and in the light of both their car's headlights, Louis could see a rather tall boy with behind him a shorter one with neon blonde hair. The dark haired boy stepped forward and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Zayn and these two are Liam and Niall."

Louis shook Zayn's hand fiercely. "Hi, I'm Louis and this is Harry."

Harry shook his hand as well. "So happy to meet you, mate, Lou and I almost thought we were the only people left."

"So did we!" The blonde guy chirped. Louis didn't remember whether he was Liam or Niall. "I honestly thought I was on me own until I found Zayn and Liam here. And then we saw the lights of your car..." So this was Niall then. He had a thick Irish accent and seemed to be errupting in excitment, bouncing lightly on the ball of his feet.

"Where did you two come from? I'm from Bradford, while I came across Liam in Wolverhampton and Niall singlehandedly made a train drive him from Ireland to here." Zayn asked, leaning against the hood of his car. He slid a hand in his pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarrets. Because his uncle often came by and liked to talk about tabacco, Louis recognised it to be one of the better, more expensive brands, but then again, they had access to anything they could possibly want right now. And why not go for the best if you could have anything? He and Harry had been living of the real brands too, food, mostly, but also shoes and clothing. There was no one to buy them otherwise anyway.

"Doncaster." He and Harry replied in unison before looking at each other and bursting out in giggles. Instantly, Niall joined, a high contagious laughter that even made Zayn smile around his cigarette.

***

They soon figured out the smallest connection between the five of them. They weren't sure whether it was significant, but they were all boys aged either seventeen and eighteen, Harry being the youngest because he just turned seventeen a month ago and Louis being the only one that was eighteen, and thus the oldest. But a half part of that theory was blown when they neared deep, loud sounds of explosions and found two girls who were repeatedly a day making bomb explode to see whether there were other people around to hear it.

They were all in one car that day, a minivan that Liam had found the keys to and Zayn had taken it upon himself to decorate it with several cans of spraypaint he'd gotten from the store. It looked awesome now, according to Niall and Louis couldn't do anything else but agree.

It was strange, how well their little group fit together. Somehow, they were all very different but their humour and jokes went very well toghether and they hadn't had any awkward situations just yet. Him and Harry were still the tightest though, and Louis wasn't planning on letting it go either. He'd had two weeks with Harry before they'd found the other three and they shared that in the same way that the other three shared that.

Zayn was driving, him and Louis switching every few hours to keep it safe, when a sound tore through the air and into the car.

"What's that?" Niall had asked, peering through the front window, trying to see whether he could see something or someone that had made that sound. They'd shared theories about how they'd gotten here, but so for they got nothing. There were no clues, no bodies, nothing that could lead them in the direction what had happened.

Nothing happened after the sound, at least not for another few hours. They were making way to London, in the hope that in a city that was so densely populated before, there might be more people. Suddenly, the sound came again, accompanied by a shaking of the ground that was so severe, it made the car shake.

Louis' mind went into overdrive onstantly. Was the world crumbling? Was nearly everyone dying the first phase and now the earthquakes came to kill the rest of them? He thought of his mother and sisters, who might very possibly be dead already and realised he would be with them if he died too. But he diodn't want to die, he had four good friends now, one he might have a crush on already, and he was fine. As long as it weren't actually earthquakes.

"Wait, I see something!" Liam suddenly yelled, pointing to a big field that was filled with flowers and grass. In the middle, there was a big, black crater, with two figures knelt into it. Louis, who was now driving, honked and they looked up instantly. Seeing the car, the two figures, humans, came running towards them and they got out, watching the two get closer.

As soon as they were close enough not to be just figures but recognisable, he heard Harry gasp. "They're _girls."_

They were girls, and there went their theory flying out of the door. Louis felt relieved though, relieved that they'd found more people, here in the outskirts of London. They were both blond, their long hair sweeping behind them as they ran, skidding to halt in front of their group.

"Oh my god," One of the two breathed. "You're actually real. Oh my, we thought that there was no one anymore when they weren't responding to the bomb we were making. We've been setting them off for two weeks now but no one ever came." Scanning all the five boys, who were watching her with mouth's wide open, she said with a small wave; "Hi, my name's Perrie, nice to meet you all."

"Bombs? You were making bombs?" Niall squawked with wide eyes. "How the hell did you manage that?"

The other girl rolled her eyes and let out an fed up sound of some sort. "Typically boys. Really, making a bomb is easy as fuck. Do you really think that we can't do it because we're girls?"

Perrie let out a short laugh and elbowed het friend. "What Skye is trying to say is that we go to a school for gifted people, so like, we have a very high IQ, to say it simple."

Louis expected Zayn to at least say something, as the raven haired boy had taken on the role of being the leader a little, but he was too busy to stare at Perrie in admiration. Louis didn't blame him, he would probably have done the same of he were straight, because honestly, a girl that was not only pretty but also smart enough to create a fucking bomb. Lucky for Zayn, he was gay, and looking around the others, he could see Liam giving Skye a onceover, but both Niall and Harry were looking just as uninterested as himself. Especially Harry not being interested felt like an achievement to Louis. Maybe he had a chance.

Perrie and Skye led them to the villa they lived in, for now. While driving, the minivan being capable of having all seven of them, Perrie told them she and Skye were seventeen and both came from London. They'd found each other after Skye had thrown something in the groups chat in panic and Perrie had been the only one that had responded.

Within two days, it became obvious how much of crush Zayn was growing on Perrie, even as he was pretending to be 'too cool' to admit it. It also became clear how much Perrie liked Zayn in return as well, but both were too blind to even realise what was happening.

Louis had taken it upon himself to get a hardcover notebook and a pencilcase with stuff he needed to write so he could write down what was happening in his mind, because it honestly became too much from time to time. He was thinking about what happened, mourning for his family and he had these feelings for Harry that just wouldn't go away. So, like he used to do, he wrote it down.

"What are you doing?" Harry sat down underneath the tree next to him, peering over the notebook to read what he'd written.

Louis pressed the book against his chest, shielding it from Harry's curious eyes. "Nothing important, what's up?"

Harry ignored the fact that Louis had changed the subject to blatantly, not pressing it, but answering the question instead. It was exactly what Louis liked about het curly haired boy, that he so easily felt what a person needed at the moment. "Not much, Niall is eating, like always, and Liam is mapping England and where we've been. Oh, and I saw Zayn and Perrie kissing in the hallway."

Now that was interesting news. It meant that Zayn had finally taken his advice and manned the fuck up and asked her out. Louis and Zayn had gotten to be quite close friends over het last few days, Zayn coming to him for advice. Not as close as him and Harry but close enough.

Before he could answer Harry though, the sounds of foootsteps thudding in the grass was audible and Zayn came to a skidding halt in front of them, face red but with a ridiculous smile curving up his mouth. Louis looked up at him with a bored, yet expectant look on his face, waiting for the darker haired boy to say something.

Zayn took a few seconds to catch his breath, before blurting out; "Perrie kissed me! She likes me back, Lou!"

Louis cast a look at Harry, who gave him the same look in return before rolling his eyes at the smiling lad in front of him. "That's pretty pathetic, mate, when a girl has to kiss you first."

A sort of dreamy state had settled over Zayn's face now and Louis wasn't really sure whether or not his words had registered in his brain. "Perrie doesn't like to be generalised as a girl." He walked off, back through the field, towards the house."

Harry rose to his feet as well. "I better go after him, I'm hungry anyway. Come inside soon, yeah? I think it's gonna rain." He gave Louis a smile and followed after Zayn, hurrying a bit to catch up with him.

Louis cast the two of them one last look before returning to what he was writing, reading over the last lines he'd noted down.

_'Sometimes I honestly think he's gay and sometimes I honestly don't know. I just really wasnt him to like me back so bad. Those green eyes and those insane curls, they drive me so mad. But then I wonder what would happen if we wouldn't work out. I mean, there are only seven of us and'_

Harry had sat down after he'd written the last part and he didn't feel like writing anymore. Seeing darker clouds pack together, he closed the notebook with a loud sound and stood up. He was inside before the first drop fell.

***

It was two weeks later that the disaster happened. They'd stayed in the same place for the past days, all agreeing (except for Liam) that going across the whole world to find more people would be an impossible task, and so they agreed that just trying to find a way to make the radio tower work again would be enough for now.

They were all sitting on the big table in the kitchen, common breakfast being a thing now. Harry liked to cook and everyone else appreciated him doing it. Niall came storming in, hair wet from the rain, a plastic bag in his hand.

"Here are your eggs Haz." Everyone had taken over the nickname Louis had given him and Harry didn't seem to mind anymore. He just smiled and took the back from Niall, heating up a pan and cracking the eggs in it.

"Lou, could you call Zayn and Perrie? Breakfast is ready and though I don't mind them shagging, breakfast they have to join." Skye snickered behind him and Louis nodded, walking to the bottom of the stairs.

"Oi, lovebirds! Time to stop having seks and have food like normal human beings!" Within a minute, Perrie appeared on top of the staircase, wearing shorts and a shirt of Zayn's. Liam wolf whistled and she flipped him the bird, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Zayn smiled as he came up behind her, placing his hands on her waist once they'd reached the bottom of the stairs. Perrie said something to him that Louis couldn't hear but made Zayn frown. After that, things seemed to go in slowmotion.

Perrie took a step forward, then stumbled and fell to the ground. Zayn barely caught her, lowering her so she was lying flat on the ground. Her eyes were closed, face pale. They all hurried over to where Zayn was hunched over, shaking Perrie's still form. "Pezza, Pezza wake up."

But Perrie didn't wake up. In fact, she didn't even seem to be breathing at all. Studying her face, Louis frowned and whispered; "Look at her face guys, she seems to , she seems to be _fading."_ And he was right. The edges of her form, her hands, arms, chin, they were all fuzzy, as if they were dissolving in air. They all watched in complete shock as the blond girl faded out of Zayn's shaking arms and disappeared from sight.

***

The first sound Louis actually got aware of again was the sound of Zayn's sobbing. It was an incredibly sad sight to see, the proud boy clutching empty air, as if it might contain still a little bit of Perrie's being.

Louis himself seemed to be in some kind of perpetual shock. Was this what happened to all the other people? What had the sweet, smart Perrie done to deserve this faith? To just dissolve into thin air?

In silence, Harry pulled Zayn away from his knees, supporting him as they walked to the kitchen, sitting him down on a stool. All the others followed, everything seemingly dampered, like there was some sound absorbing cloth hanging over them.

Harry made tea, quiet and pale and Louis went to stand behind him when he saw that the taller boy had tears in his eyes. Once Harry felt two strong arms wrapped around his waist, he turned and buried his face into Louis' shoulder, sniffling quietly into the fabric.

After that, everything seemed as if it were sedated. They held a small ceremony for her, even as they had no body to bury. Zayn was positively heartbroken, as to be expected because he admitted to have fallen in love with her, even if it had been only two weeks. Under the circumstances didn't it seem weird, as everything, even their friendship seemed to be in fast forward right now.

A lot of crying happened over the next few days, crying and mourning and Louis writing in his notebook. Because Harry had gotten a lot handier lately. Gripping his knee, his wrist, hugging, snuggling on the couch. Louis hoped it meant something but he knew it was just Harry's way of dealing with loss. And so he wrote, hoping that letting it out might ease down the feelings.

That was, until one day, he couldn't find his notebook. It wasn't where he used to put it, behind the loose wooden plint next to his bed. He was sure he put it there, in a hurry because Harry was right up behind him, but that was the exact reason why he was so sure he'd put it there. He frowned and lifted his bedsheets, but of course it wasn't there.

"Niall?" He called out loud, walking out of his and Harry's bedroom. They still shared it, out of habit Liam called it, though Louis hoped it was the attraction. Louis hoped a lot lately.

"Yeah?" Came the reply from the 'workshop'. It used to be the garage, but as both Niall and Skye liked to work with their hands and build and fix stuff, they'd reformed it into a small workshop where could do their thing. Niall's blonde head popped around the corner, looking at him curiously. There was a grease stain on his right cheek and one on his forhead, his hands completely covered in black ash. "What's up, Lou?"

"Have you by any chance seen the notebook I'm always writing in?" He asked, not really wanting to keep Niall from his work any longer than neccesary. "It's like this blueish, greenish colour?"

Niall shook his head and Louis could see the honesty in his eyes. "No, mate, I'm sorry. Maybe check on Harry or something? Yee two are always in each other's stuff. On second thought, maybe not. You don't want Harry to read all these feelings you wrote down that you have for him."

Louis' mouth dropped open, eyes wide and Niall laughed. "Honestly, mate, you thought I wouldn't notice that? Everyone has seen how gone you are for him. It's very obvious." There was a loud beep from inside the workshops and Niall's face lit up. "That's my call, got to go Lou." He was gone before Louis could respond.

It left him on his own again and of course, without his notebook. Now Liam would ever take it and Zayn was too deep to even bother, so that left Skye and Harry. Louis honestly couldn't really get a good read on Skye. she was sarcastic at times, but mostly kept to herself, especially after Perrie had faded. That's what they called it now, faded. They guessed it had happened to everyone else, but they couldn't know that for sure, or why it had happened to Perrie just now instead of fading along with everyone else. Everything was unsure right now.

He walked to the kitchen, vaguely looking out of the window on the left while walking. Harry was sitting outside under the tree again, reading a book. A blue green book. A blue green _notebook._

He was sprinting outside in and instant, running towards Harry at record speed. Harry was reading it, everything he had written down about him and how he felt and Harry was reading it. This was a disaster.

He came slipping to a halt, instantly snatching the book away from Harry, who looked up at him with some strange sort of sparkle in his eyes that Louis couldn't exactly define. "Don't read that. Please, don't."

Harry rose to his feet, reaching out for the notebook that Louis was desperately trying to keep out of his reach. "Lou," He had read it, Louis knew that, he had seen how far Harry was into the thing and considering he had let it all out one het first fucking page, Harry more than knew now. He casted his eyes down. "Lou, look at me. Louis."

A hand grabbed his chin and forced his head in the right direction, yet Louis darted his eyes everywhere but Harry's face, not being able to handle that look on his face now. The hand on his chin tightened and Harry's other hand settled on the small of his back, finally giving up trying to grab the notebook again. "Louis, I said _look at me."_

Something in Harry's voice made him giving in and look Harry dead in the eyes, the waterfall of words falling out of his mouth instantly. "Listen Haz, you went through my things and I really don't appreciate that. That journal was private and-"

"I like you too, Lou."

Louis instantly froze, like, literally. He stopped moving, stopped talking, his heart stopped for a second before starting starting to rage against his ribcage. "W-what?"

Harry let out a dramatic loud sigh and rolled his eyes. By his chin, he pulled Louis closer until he was able to slam their lips together in and hungry kiss.

It wasn't gentle, like Louis had expected their first kiss to be. It wasn't hesitant or exploring. No. It was a deep, passionate, desperate kiss that send Louis gasping against Harry's lips, grabbing onto his shirt and pulling him impossibly closer.

Pulling back for air, Harry broke the kiss and leant his forehead against Louis', stroking a thumb over the shorter man's lips. "God, Louis, do you have any idea for how long I've wanted to do that?"

In response, Louis just laughed, the high and free sound of it twinkling up into the air.

***

But, like Deadpool once said, life is just one big pile of crap with the occasional comercial break of happiness. Louis getting to be with Harry? One of the fucking longest and best comercial breaks Louis ever got to have, and would have.

Harry was wonderful, taking Louis out to a restaurant and, because of course all the chefs had disappeared too, cooked for him there in a romantic setting. He cuddled Louis when he missed his family and pulled pranks on the others when there was this huge amount of energy coarsing through his veins and he couldn't exactly control his ADHD anymore. And Harry kissed him of course. God the kisses were amazing and they did it so, so much that Louis sometimes thought his lips were going to fall off.

But, like all of the best stories, it had to end. Of course it couldn't go on like this forever, them building their lives in the scraps of the broken world. Louis didn't k ow what it was he'd done to piss fate off, but it seriously hated him with all it's might.

In the end, they only got two weeks together before the worst imaginable thing happened.

It started as any other normal morning nowadays, Louis' front being plastered against Harry's naked back and bum. While Louis preferred to at least wear his underpants while sleeping, Harry turned out to like sleeping completely naked. Not that Louis had any objections to that. It was just very new.

When he moved one of his arms that was slung around Harry's waist, Harry's back muscles moved slightly, something that Louis had learned over the past few weeks that meant Harry was waking up. Louis had learned a lot about Harry. "Morning."

Harry turned in Louis' arms with a little smile on his face, eyes still nearly completely closed and thick with sleep. "Good morning, how're you feeling?"

Louis grimaced a little. "Not so good, to be honest. 'Ve got quite a headache."

"Oh no, you poor baby." Harry cooed, raising a hand to Louis' forehead to take his temperature and Louis chuckled softly. If anyone was the baby in this relationship, it would be Harry, with his hipster fashion, his liking of being the little spoon and being taken care for and the simple fact that he was a bottom. That didn't change the fact that Louis felt all warm inside at the mention of the petname.

"Do you want a piggyback ride downstairs? We've got aspirin in the kitchen."

And well, who was Louis to say now to a free piggyback ride? He nodded slowly, trying not to hurt his head any more and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Harry got up, pushing the covers aside and walked to the other side of the bed, where Louis was seated. He crouched down, back towards Louis and helped the smaller boy up, hands tightening beneath his thighs.

Louis giggled when Harry swayed a bit, slinging his arms around his neck to secure his hold. "Bring me down, my horse." And then proceeded to laugh even louder when Harry suddenly bent his knees in some kind of courtsy, causing him to almost fall off. "Hey! Watch it, I'm hurt here!" It didn't sound half serious between all the giggles and fits of laughter.

Harry did the weird courtsy thing again, with more supplesse and grace this time, and said in a mock high voice; "Yes, my liege, as you've ordered."

Louis squealed as Harry carefully carried him down the stairs, making horse hooves noises along the way. His head was still pounding yes, but somehow, the banter made the strange itch underneath his skin feel lighter.

Once they'd gotten down and Harry had carefully set Louis in a chair, he searched the cabinets for the packet of aspirin and set up the kettle to heat water for the tea. Tea turned out into a full English breakfast and soon Niall and Liam had joined them in the kitchen, but that didn't make the banter any less.

"You know, with all the cooking you do, you should wear a maid's costume." It wasn't even a serious suggestion of Louis' part, but Niall scrunched up his nose and responded anyway.

"Eww, I didn't need to know that, you kinky bastards. Please keep yee sexual activities to the bedroom, yeah? You're hurting me innocent brain."

Louis laughed loudly. "Innocent, my ass, you're probably as innocent as a-" He was cut off by a bolt of naussea that came up his throat and he doubled over.

Withing half a second, Harry had rushed to his side and placed his large hands on Louis' shoulders. "Lou, are you alright?" But Louis couldn't respond in words anymore, too afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would puke all over Harry. He shook his head and doubled over again, seeking purchase on the table but not finding any, a plate smashing to pieces on the floor.

He slid off the chair, into Harry's arms, eyes barely registering anything now anymore. He couldn't keep them open. Somewhere beyond the fuzzyness, he could hear footsteps and Zayn's voice saying; "What's going on here guys?"

Upon which he could hear Harry respond; "Something's wrong with Louis."

Something's wrong with Louis. The realisation was suddenly to him as clear as day. He was fading, that was what was wrong. He was fading and he had no clue where to and he was leaving Harry without meaning to, just as Perrie had left Zayn.

He tried to raise his hand. It felt so heavy, despite seeing through half closed eyelids that it was bearily there, vague at the edges and weirdly translucent. He brushed it against Harry's cheek, his voice a whisper; "Haz, I love you." He blinked his eyes for the last time but he couldn't say more. A single tear fell from his cheek onto Harry's hand and then he was gone, the tiny drop of salt fluid the only thing he left behind.

***

As Louis slowly drifted to conciousness, he realised he was not dead. It seemed like a stupid realisation at first, but being not dead meant that he was still alive, which was good. But how? Had he being wrong and not faded somehow?

There was a steady beep beside his head and blankets covering him up onto about half his chest. He breathed in deeply, feeling fresh air enter his lungs like there was an open window somewhere. He tried to speak, his throat scratchy and painful, but the name came out anyway.

"Harry."

Instantly, something grabbed his hand and the beep beside his head picked up. It was following his heartbeat, Louis now realised, and something was strapped onto his face and going a little bit into his nose that was giving him air.

Something was still grabbing his hand, another hand, and Louis croaked again; "Harry, is that you?" But the hand felt too small. Another hand stroked away the crust around his fluttering eyelids and it was getting easier to open them.

The light was too bright, too white and he had to squeeze his eyes shut for a handful of seconds before opening them again, blinking into reality.

A woman was sitting next to him, peering down at his face in a mix of worry and relief. She looked familiar, but Louis couldn't place her instantly. When he did, the beat of his heart picked up again because, oh my god, he didn't think she'd survived this all and that he would ever see her again. "Mum?"

"Yes, I'm here honey." She smiled, blue eyes so greatly mirroring his own. "I'm glad to see you again Lou, I thought I'd lost you."

"I thought I lost you too. I love you mum." He smiled, looking around the room, finding two more blond girls there. "Lotts, Fizzy, I'm so glad to see you again." They all smiled widely at each other.

Louis scanned the room again. Next to him was a heart beat monitor and an IV pole standing next to it. There was an old bag of his laying on a table, one he hadn't used before the disasters had happened and a bag that belonged to his mother next to the chair she was sitting on. but something seemed awfully missing. "Where's Harry?"

His mother frowned visible. "I'm sorry love, but...who's Harry?"

"My boyfriend," The beeping picked up again as he was getting a little frantic. "Where is he? He was there when I faded out, he should-"

His mother placed a soft hand on his arm. "Louis William Tomlinson, calm down right now and tell me what's going on. You have a boyfriend? Why didn't you tell us about him?"

"Because you weren't there to tell of course!" He took a couple of breathes before ranting on. "I only met him after everyone was gone and I was out and getting shot at and he opened the door. We went on together, trying to see who was left on earth and we met a few other people but the world was empty aside of that and I had to clue that you were still alive and-"

"Louis, stop." His mother's autoritarian voice stopped him once again, forcing him to take in some air. "What do you mean getting shot at? And only people left in the world? Lou, we've found you unconcious in your bed the day after you said you were feeling better. There is no empty world."

Louis stared at her blankly. "What do you mean unconcious? Do mean that that all... it didn't happen?"

"I think you dreamt it Lou," His mum's voice was gentle, though the message they held wasn't. "Some sort of new virus evolved, the doctors call it Sleeping Death. Only a few specific people caught it and you were one of them. A few tenfold of them has died already withing the first few days, Lou, a couple of handful is still unconcious. You're only the second to wake up."

But the words didn't register in Louis' mind anymore. All he could do was blink voidly down at his hands, chest feeling constricted. "So, Harry...wasn't real, the love of my life doesn't actually exist? I never actually met him? I just made him up due to the virus?" His heart was hurting so bad, he just wanted to close his eyes and never open them again.

His mum nodded softly, not unkindly, with deep lines of worry etched into her face. "I'm afraid so, love."

Her last four words were what broke him eventually. A large sob left his mouth. "Harry, no..." He gasped for air and said again, harder this time; "Harry..." Another sob, the tears kept coming. His mum next to him looked uncertain of what to do. He fisted the sheet and suddenly uncontrolably, shouted on the top of his lungs; _"HARRY!"_

An asian looking nurse came storming in and, with one look on his distraught face, did something with his IV and everything went black again.

***

When he woke up the second time, he was calmer. The loss of the person he thought to be in love with was still there, but logic won it over the urge to cry and scream.

He kept his eyes clothes, listening to a woman's voice, not his mother's, say; "The reaction he head appears to be normal. The other girl that has woken up too had a similar fashioned one, yelling for some boy. She too spoke about an empty world, so it seems that the virus gives them very specific hallucinations about love and loneliness, which are two central area's in the brain."

Louis coughed lowly in his hand, not able to keep quiet anymore. He opened his eyes slowly, finding both his mum and a blond elderly woman in a labcoat looking at him. The woman smiled as he examined her. By the looks of her coat, the nametag and the clipboard she was holding, Louis guessed she was the doctor.

"Hi," She said, extending her hand. "I'm doctor Carter, but you can call me Ella. I'm the specialist on the Sleeping Dead virus." Louis was right, she was a doctor.

"Hi," Louis shook her hand before seeking eyecontact with his mum. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out mum, I didn't mean to. I was just a little..." He searched for the right word. "Heartbroken, I guess."

"It's alright." His mum said with a little smile, obviously relieved that he was coherent now. "It's good to have you back at least, after three months."

"Three months?" Louis squawked. He knew the time that had passed in his dreams had been three months, but somehow, he'd been expecting time to have gone faster here in the real world. "Has ot been that long?"

His mum nodded sadly. "Nevermind that now love, let's listen to what Doctor Ella has to say."

***

Turns out, Louis made recovery on an exceptional speed, just like the other girl that had woken up. (Louis still hadn't been able to get her name.) After three days, he was back on walking and showering and eating like normal people do, only staying in the hospital for observation.

THe loss of Harry and all the others still hurt and, somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn't really believe nor accept that it hadn't been really. That everything he'd felt, the fear, the survival, the friendship, the love, that it all had been a dream. It had all been so, so realistic. Too realistic.

Now that they allowed him to, he was walking down the halls of the hospital, free to look around in his hospital gown, under the condition that he stayed on this floor. He liked that he could get out of his room now, get away from his family for a bit. Don't get the wrong idea, he loved his mum and sisters to death, all four of them, but sometimes they could care a bit much and he needed time to think and process it all. A lot was happening and for half of it, he didn't know how to deal with it.

He'd just turned a corner when someone rushed past him, a doctor, hurrying down the hall and into a room at the end of it. Louis got about one second to wonder what was so important he nearly had to be pushed over when a scream echoed down the hallway that made the blood in his veins freeze.

"No, LOUIS!"

He knew that voice. He knew that voice by heart and after spending three days thinking that he'd made that voice up, his heart was rapidly speeding up against his ribcage. Before he knew it, he was running at the top of his speed to that door down the hall, to the source of that lovely, deep, panic stricken voice.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he entered. There, on the hospital bed, dressed in a terrible gown and struggeling against hte hands of a woman who looked so much like him, was Harry Styles, the man he'd fallen so desperately in love with.

He looked bad, pale, with splotchy red marks on his cheeks and dark circles under his eyes, but Louis had seen himself when he'd just woken up for the second time and knew this was what the virus did with your real body. And, judging in Harry's exclamation, what the virus did too was put them all in some sort of alternate dimension or something.

He could see the nurse, the same nurse that had sedated him, reach out to Harry's IV bag, going to give him morphine, but Louis spoke before the asian looking man could. "Wait!"

Immediately, everyone's head turned to him, Harry instantly stilled, eyes wide and mouth falling open. The nurse looked at him with a frown, while the woman Louis thought to be Harry's mother had confusion written all over her face.

"L-Louis?"

"Harry..." Louis breathed with a sigh, rushing over to the bed. Harry's mother stepped aside instantly, as if she was feeling that this meant something. Louis gave her a quick smile before reaching over, grabbing Harry's hand and promptly pushing his lips atop of Harry's.

They didn't keep it up for long, smiling too wide to properly kiss, yet Louis felt breathless when he pulled back none the less. Harry smiled back at him, reaching out a hand to stroke Louis' cheek. "You're really here."

Louis grabbed the hand touching his cheek and held it tight, entwining their fingers. "Yes love, I'm really here. I'm real and so are you."

Someone coughed. Biting his lip slightly, Louis turned to see Harry's mother still standing htere, hands on her hips, a half amused, half confused expression on her face. Aparently, the nurse had left withoout administering the morphine. "While apreciate seeming my son smile like this," A quick look at Harry's face told Louis Harry was smiling as an idiot again. "I would like to know what is going on if you don't mind."

***

"So you two met in the hallucination?" Doctor Carter asked with a frown. Not unusual, as she was a person of science and Louis had to admit it sounded a damn lot like magic what they were telling.

He tried to nuance it a bit. "Kind of, more like the steam brought all of us in the same frequency state of mind of some sort. And not just us, there are more, there were seven of us. Me and Harry are from Doncaster, then there is Liam from Wolverhampton, Niall in Ireland, Zayn from Bradford and Perrie and Skye from London. Perrie is the other girl that woke up, isn't she?"

Doctor Carter nodded in surprise. "As illogical as it sounds, yes, her name is Perrie Edwards. She got transferred here after she woke up because we specialise in the Sleeping Death disease." She seemed hesitant.

"Can we go see her?" Harry asked excitedly, green eyes sparkling.

Ella visibly swallowed. "Miss Edwards had been in a fairly unstable state ever since she woke up. She...she's been unresponsive and has only said one name in the three weeks she's been awake."

"Zayn." Louis supplied. "Perrie and Zayn fell in love, just like me and Harry." Harry's hand tightened in his. "Look, maybe we can get her to come back to the world because we've been there too."

Doctor Ella ran a hand over her face. "Fine, we've got nothing to lose anyway. She's in the psychiatric ward. But be gentle alright? She's fragile."

***

Now it there was one thing Louis couldn't imagine, it was Perrie Edwards being fragile, but seeing her sitting there on the edge of her bed, staring out of the window with a blank face, fragile actually was the only word the could describe her.

"Pezza?" No reaction.

Harry walked over and took her hand in his, but she didn't grip it like anyone else would. It just limply laid in his giant palm without moving.

With a frown, Louis went and knelt in front of the girl, positioning his head so that her unfocused eyes were directed straight at him. Looking right into the motionless pupils, he spoke slowly. "Perrie, can you hear me, love? It's me, Louis. And Harry is hear too. If you do understand me, could you maybe just blink twice for me, please?"

For a long time, the fragile girl just continued to stare, eyes unmoving. Then, just as Louis was about to give up, her eyelids moved slowly, sluggishly up and down. Harry snapped his head up to look at Louis, eyes wide. Louis nodded slowly in understanding and looked Perrie into the eyes again. "Thank you, Pezza. You know, I know that they told you that Zayn never existed and that it hurts you right now, but I have good news." Even the mention of Zayn's name made her shift a little, shoulders moving slightly. Louis took that as good news. "But you didn't make Zayn up, Pezza, just like you didn't make me or Harry up. Zayn his real, he's in the hospital in Bradford, unconcious and still caught by the virus we were all caught by, but he is real Perrie, and he might need you to wake him up. Could you come back to us Pez? For him?"

First, Perrie's shoulders moved a little. Then, Louis still staring into her eyes, her eyes suddenly seemed to gain focus and set fixed on Louis' face. "Louis?"

Harry let out a sigh of relieve while Louis instantly hugged her tight, making sure not to crush her fragile frame. "Hey Pezza, we missed you."

Harry hugged her next, brushing her dirty blond hair out of her face. Perrie pulled a face upon seeing he greasiness of the strands and crinkled her nose. With her real conciousness, she seemed to gain more than just a little of her old strenght, the genius girl that made bombs to survive. "Jesus, I was so out of it. Thanks for pulling me out of it guys. Could you maybe explain what is actually going on here?"

Louis chuckled softly and quickly explained the situation with the Sleeping Death virus. At the end of it, Perrie sighed and shifted on the bed. "Wonder why it is only us that got affected. And what happened with the others who died."

"So do I." Harry said softly. "But we'll never know. All we can do is stay here and try to help the others if it turns out that we can."

***

Living in an empty world with only six other people for three months had made Louis grow up more than he'd like to admit. It might explain why he felt frustrated talking to his former best friend Stan, who wanted to talk him through what he'd all had missed at school and about the new hot chick who happened to have a hot brother. Louis just couldn't help but think that there just were more important things in the world than high school.

He knew that it was probably hard to understand for his mother, to whom her experience he had been in a coma for thirteen weeks. He could therefor understand his mum's confusion when he told her he already knew how to drive. She didn't believe him when he wanted to take his test without the lessons either, but let him anyway, probably because he _had_ been in a coma for three months and she couldn't say no to him right now.

He passed with flying colours and was now able to drive himself and Harry to the hospital every day. They'd been pardoned from school for the rest of the year, getting to the hospital every day to help trying to cure the Sleeping Death.

Perrie stayed in the hospital, her parents having died five years ago. She was eighteen anyway and allowed to look after herself. The other four, who were still comatose, had been transferred to Doncaster State Hospital anyway.

It was four in the morning when an insistent ringing woke Louis from a deep sleep. He grasped at it blindly and pressed answer before even reading who was calling. "Whoever this is better have a bloody good reason for waking me up whi-"

"Liam is waking up." Perrie cut him off.

Louis was wide awake instantly. Apparently, there were some signs of someone waking up, the doctors had noticed. Speeding heart rates, rising blood pressure, Louis didn't know all the details but it wasn't important anyway. What was important was that Liam was getting up.

"I'll get Harry and we'll be there as soon as possible." He simply hung up after that, rushing downstairs while tugging on a pair of joggers. Pulling on his shoes, he wrote a note for his mother. They'd discussed that this could happen, but still thought it was nice to let her know where he was.

He called Harry while driving, glad to have the hands free mode on his car.

"Lou?" Harry answered sleepily, voice rough by a night of disuse. Louis would've found it really hot hadn't it been for the situation.

"Haz, I'm coming to pick you up right now." Louis cut short, straight to the point. "Be ready, Liam's waking up."

"See you in five." Was all Harry answered, hanging up. With a small smile, Louis chucked his phone onto the passenger seat and sped up.

Harry got in as he stopped in front of his house, sliding in onto the passenger seat with and smile, then frowned before pulling a rectangular device from below his ass. Louis laughed and took his phone, pocketing it.

They got to the hospital in under ten minutes, parking the car in the space reserved for them and hurrying to the third floor to Liam's room. Perrie was already there, as well as Doctor Ella and the Asian looking nurse that was everywhere for some reason.

Lying on his bed, with a white face and a familiar frown on his brow was Liam. He was breathing fast now, his heart rate going off the charts. A hand grasped Louis' tight, Harry siding up next to him.

Perrie was watching with a spark of hope in her eyes. She had clearly wished it was Zayn and not Liam who was waking up, but the fact that he was gave some hope for Zayn's chances.

Liam suddenly gasped and Louis tensed, clasping Harry's hand tighter. The boy on the bed arched his back and fell onto the mattress, limp and motionless. Everyone watched in horror as life seemed to fade from his unmoving body.

Perrie made a small noise and clasped her hand in front of her mouth. With a cry, Harry hid his face into Louis' neck, the latter continuing to stare at Liam, not believing that this was it, that Liam was gone.

Just when he was about to turn away, to hug Harry and comfort him, an electric pulse of some sort went through Liam's body and he gasped, sucking in air, eyes fluttering open.

"Liam!" Louis all but shouted and he rushed over, grasping the puppy eyed boy's hand. "Thank god you're alive."

Liam's eyes directed themselves to his face. "Louis?" His gaze darted around the room. "Harry, Perrie? What happened? Where am I?"

Louis smiled kindly at him. "Why don't you focus on getting better first Li? We'll explain everything to you later."

***

"When you say close, how close is close. Do you mean you could have the cure tomorrow or possibly over a year away?"

The guy who Louis had thought of to be the Asian nurse, who actually turned out to be a lab specialist named Calum, (And he was kiwi, _not Asian!)_ sighed. "The problem is that we have 99% of the information about the wake up that we need. In fact, if one more of the three wakes up, we could probably get up the others too."

"Probably? So you're not sure?" Perrie asked with a frown. They were all seated in the lab, Perrie, Liam, Harry, Calum, Ella and Louis.

Calum shrugged once again, something he seemed to do an awful lot."There is always a small percent of uncertainty here. Masybe, if something goes wrong, we can not get the information we need. But there is a fat chance that we do."

"Great," Harry rolled his eyes, "A fat chance. Like that does us any good right now."He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Like if it were on que, both Calum and Ella's pagers started beeping at the same time. Ella nearly tore it from her belt and read what it said. "Room 309, that's Zayn." Ever since Harry and Louis' explanation, Ella had taken it to call them by their first names too, because they all did. It was easier to understand for everyone.

Perrie jumped up at the mention of Zayn's name. "What is it? Its he waking up?"

"Let's hope so." Ella hurried out of the office, everyone hot on her heels.

Within ten minutes, they were all standing around Zayn's bed, watching the two reunited. Zayn's waking up had gone nearly exactly the same as Liam's, Perrie bursting into tears when Zayn's eyes finally opened. As much as it was endearing and happy to see his friend awaken, Louis' heart hurt for Skye and Niall, who were now left in that world with just the two of them. How would they be coping with all that sorrow on their own?

Before Louis could reason with himself anymore, Ella's pager beeped once again. She looked at it, everyone looking at _her_ with expectant faces. She frowned. "Room 305, that's Skye."

"We'll come with." Louis said instantly. He turned to face Liam, Zayn and Perrie. "You stay here. We might overwhelm her if we go with too many."

"Alright, then." Liam nodded. "go on." Ella's pager beeped again and they hurried out of the room, down the hallway and into Skye's room.

Skye was literally shaking the bed she was in, clutching at the sheets. Her face was ashen grey, eyes screwed close tight. Her heart rate was out of control, the machine that followed the beat of her heart giving a sound that was nearly a constant noise.

Suddenly, the blond girl grabbed at her shoulder with a gasp, clutching it and curling her body into herself. Her eyes flew open just as the machine flat lined, not picking up a heartbeat anymore.

There was a deafening silence, even as the machine was still giving off this godawful high pitched noise. Louis stared in shock at the limp girl on the bed, somehow feeling in his bones that she was actually gone and that she was not coming back.

Louis never had been very good friends with Skye, it didn't seem like anyone really had been, not even Perrie. Skye had always kept to herself, but still she didn't deserve to die. Nobody deserves to die.

"She's gone." Ella whispered softly. It was completely unnecessary for her to say it but it made it feel more real. Numb,  Louis stumbled out of the room, Harry behind him, and sunk against the wall to the floor.

"I can get Niall to wake up." Calum came running towards them. Louis had no idea how long they'd been sitting there, Harry's arms around him, but it felt endless.

He looked up, tears on his face. "Are you sure?"

"Well,-" But Louis rose a hand to cut him off, having heard the doubt in his voice.

"Before we make that decision, could you inform the others? This is not a choice for just me and Harry to make."

***

_(Three years later)_

"Harry, hurry up or we'll miss our flight home!" Louis called through the suite.

They were in China, for the time being, where a new epidemic of the Sleeping Death had broken out. In the end, they hadn't gone back to school. Ella had offered them all a job at the department. Harry and Louis had taken it, along with Perrie, while Zayn, Liam and Niall had decided to go and finish senior year.

Neither of their mums were very happy about their decision, but respected it and it turned out to be amazing, because well, they were in fucking China. About to go home actually, because although travelling around the world and saving people's lives was absolutely amazing, they wanted to get home for Christmas none the less.

Niall woke up without any problems, and he had explained how Skye had died in the daylight bullet fire they'd all forgotten about. They'd held a funeral for her, just them, as she had no close family left.

"I'm just making sure we've got everything. Calm down Lou, we've got more than an hour to spare." Harry chuckled, appearing in the doorway.

Louis sighed, running a hand over his face. "I know, I know. I guess I'm just anxious to see Zoé. I feel so bad we missed it."

The reason Perrie wasn't with them for this trip was that she was way too far into her pregnancy too travel. Her due date was in a week or so, but she'd gone into labour early and Zoé had been born with Harry and Louis half across the world. According to the pictures they'd gotten, Zoé was the perfect mix between Zayn and Perrie and especially Louis was particularly anxious to meet the little girl.

Harry smiled softly and kissed him softly on the lips, once. "I know you are Lou, but let's just focus on getting home first, alright?"

Louis smiled and hugged Harry close. Even though they travelled a lot and they'd suffered both from one of the more deadly virusses in the world, Harry would always feel like home to him, no matter how empty the world would be.

 


End file.
